Welcome to a special mini series from the Podcast Learning Network! The Podcast Learning Network (PLN) hosted a series of expert discussion panels to explore different aspects of podcasting. This episode is a live recording of the January 19, 2024 discussion about building a podcast brand and online community. Our guest experts are: Christine Cacci…

Welcome to a special mini series from the Podcast Learning Network! The Podcast Learning Network (PLN) hosted a series of expert discussion panels to explore different aspects of podcasting. This episode is a live recording of the October 19, 2023 discussion about doing interviews. Our guest experts are: Cassidy Cash is a historical map illustrator…

In the spirit of Black History and African Heritage Month at Brock, Masters student Isabelle Hill and recent graduate Christabel Oghinan take the mic to explore what Black allyship looks like in research. They spoke with Dr. Andrea Doucet, Professor in Brock’s Department of Sociology and Canadian Research Chair in Gender, Work and Care, and recent …

Welcome to a special edition of Foreword! In the spirit of Black History and African Heritage Month at Brock, Masters student Isabelle Hill and recent graduate Christabel Oghinan take the mic to explore what Black allyship looks like in research. They spoke with Dr. Andrea Doucet, Professor in Brock’s Department of Sociology and Canadian Research C…

Have you ever experienced a concussion? Or perhaps you know someone who has? Traumatic brain injury can cause issues with concentration, memory, balance, vision, speech, sleep, and mood. The symptoms are often invisible, can last anywhere from days to years, and can be difficult for others to comprehend. Mike Griffin, has worked with students to br…

Today’s episode comes from our vault, and it is one for fans of royalty. We recorded this conversation with fourth year history student Gavin Watson last spring. Gavin found himself writing a paper on the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II when the Queen passed away in the fall of 2022. Gavin’s research examines the controversial choice to televise t…

Have you ever wondered what you can do with an MA in a Humanities subject? Dr. Elizabeth Vlossak invited two Brock alumnae, Shaunna Hubert and Francesca Patten to talk about how they have used their MA degrees in their careers in an online panel. Shaunna and Francesca shared how their degrees led them into unexpected careers, challenges they met al…

In today’s crossover episode between Foreword, The Tattooed Historian, and the Brown Homestead, PhD student John R. Heckman and history MA alumna Jess Linzel take us on an audio tour of St. Catharine’s oldest house and explore what it means to preserve and study local history. Jess Linzel (BA ’18, MA ’21) is a graduate of both the BA and MA program…

Nick Cooper's music career has taken him around the world and back since he graduated with a Bachelor of Music in 2017. He joins us this episode to share where his music career has taken him and the joys and challenges he found along the way. Links Nick Cooper Music (website) @Nick_Cooper_Music (Instagram) Nick Cooper on Spotify Related Episodes S2…

How does the study of sport history help us understand our society? This episode we speak with historian Dr. Taylor McKee, Associate Professor in the Department of Sport Management, about how understanding sport helps us understand our society. We discuss his research on violence and masculinity in hockey and the long history of advocating for chan…

Welcome to series five! This series we will be continuing that eclectic mix of topics you’ve come to expect, but we’ll also be introducing some new episode formats as well. Our first episode this season is recorded on location in the Visual Arts gallery at the Marilyn I. Walker School of Fine and Performing Arts. The gallery is a teaching exhibitio…

Join our guest Lesley Bell as we take a "Snow walk" through Mackenzie Chown Complex to discuss artist Michael Snow's 1972-1973 installation "Timed Images," the architecture of Raymond Moriyama and the murals by James Sutherland. View the accompanying 1970s and current images on our special episode webpage Michael Snow Art Walk. Links Timed Images: …

If you're a Brock student, employee, or even visitor, chances are you have tried to navigate Mackenzie Chown Complex at some point and possibly even gotten lost. But have you ever wondered why it is built the way it is, or wondered about the art work inside it? Today's guest, Lesley Bell, has, and she's done the research to find the answers. To mar…

Written texts, journal articles, and printed books are not the only way we create and share knowledge in the Humanities. The process of research creation brings together multiple disciplines to explore a more comprehensive understanding of what it means to be human. This episode, we speak with artist and researcher Julie Gemuend, who shares how she…

What does the word "luxury" mean to you? In this episode of Foreword, we unpack the idea of what luxury is, how we can study it, and why studying it matters. Dr. Jessica Clark, Associate Professor with the Department of History, and Dr. Nigel Lezama, Associate Professor of French with the Department of Modern Languages, Literatures and Cultures, ta…

Today we meet Dr. Lissa Paul, a researcher in children's literature, who has followed the story of 19th century writer and educator Eliza Fenwick from London to Barbados to Niagara-on-the-Lake. Lissa shares who Eliza was and how researching Eliza's story lead her to stories of fugitive slaves and current efforts to decolonize the landscape by memor…

What is an archive? How do papers and books wind up in one? And how is technology changing the way we collect and use archival materials? David Sharron, Head of Archives and Special Collections here at Brock University is on hand with the answers! In this episode, David shares the joy of archival research and some of the collection's highlights, in…

Today we're joined by Dr. Neta Gordon, Professor with the Department of English Language and Literature. We talk about her passion for teaching, particularly first year courses, and her recently published book, Bearers of Risk: Writing Masculinity in Contemporary English-Canadian Short Story Cycles (McGill-Queens, 2022). We talk about her work on a…

What was life like for children in ancient Rome? How did Romans think about the idea of family? And why should we bother studying Latin in the 21st century? Our guest this episode is Dr. Fanny Dolansky, Associate Professor with the Department of Classics and Archaeology. She shares how she became interested in Roman history, her work on childhood a…

Today's episode deals with some of the heavier topics in the news cycle-- war, war crimes, terrorism, genocide, and the war in Ukraine. We speak with Dr. Gregor Kranjc, Associate Professor with the Department of History on his research into war and society and his courses on genocide, terrorism, and the Holocaust, as well as how to teach heavy topi…

Witches, harpies, succubi, brood mothers--video games are known for some pretty grotesque female monsters. What do these depictions of monsters in games say about how we view and treat people with bodies that society considers "non standard"? Why do these depictions of monstrous women matter? Assistant Professor with the Department of Digital Human…

We're back! Series 4 will launch Monday, Nov. 7 with a full line up of fascinating conversations with humanities researchers. We take on timely and challenging ideas in thought-provoking interviews that you don't need a humanities background to understand. Look for us in your feed every other Monday starting November 7. Subscribe in your favourite …

In this episode, we pass the mic to third year Interactive Arts and Science student Mitch Kogan. Mitch interviews Game Design graduate Adam Henderson (BA '20) who, along with Agusia Krzywinska (BSc '20 in Game Programming) has launched the game studio Adjective Noun. Links Adjective Noun Studios First cohort graduates from Brock-Niagara College GAM…

Let's talk about food! English MA student Genevieve Wilson talks about food delivery services, keto diet culture, Instagram, and economics with us in this episode . Genevieve shares her ongoing research into the rhetoric and discourse around meal prep services and explores links between keto diet discourse and the far right movement. Links Master o…

This episode we talk with English MA student Alex Wedler. Our conversation ranges from Chernobyl to Paradise Lost as we explore ideas of environment, place, and exile in literature. Alex unpacks the idea of hyper objects and how events can stick to people, as well as sharing his insights into the grad student experience. Works Mentioned The Tiger b…

Our grad series continues this episode with an exploration of the history of disability in Ontario. We speak with recent MA History graduate Carolyn Fast (BA '14, MA '21), whose MA thesis focussed on the stories of people who experienced institutionalization and explores the continuing impact of this lesser-known aspect of Ontario history. Between …

Welcome to series three of Foreword! This series we will be bringing you interviews with our graduate student researchers in our Classics, History, and English MA programs, as well as our Interdisciplinary Humanities PhD program. Today's featured guest is Shakeel Ahmed, an MA student in the Department of Classics and Archaeology. Shakeel shares wit…

This episode is the finale of a three-episode series of “Chronicles of A Spy in Acadia”: a student-produced podcast researched, written, recorded and edited by the students of Brock University’s History 4P11 class. The podcast centers on Atlantic colonial Canada in the 18th century by looking at the events through the eyes of a real-life historical…

This episode is the second in a three-episode series of “Chronicles of A Spy in Acadia,” a student-produced podcast researched, written, recorded and edited by the students of Brock University’s History 4P11 class. The podcast series centers on Atlantic colonial Canada in the 18th century by looking at the events through the eyes of a real-life his…

This episode is the first in a three-episode series of “Chronicles of A Spy in Acadia”: a student-produced podcast researched, written, recorded and edited by the students of Brock University’s History 4P11 State and Society in Colonial Canada class. The podcast centers on Atlantic colonial Canada in the 18th century by looking at the events throug…

How are our personal and communal identities shaped by the stories we tell ourselves and the traumas we experience? Today's guest, Dr. Cristina Santos, shares how stories like Twilight, the Hunger Games, and Divergent, repackage old ideas of what it means to be a woman and how these fairytale archetypes translate into our social psyche. She will al…

Populism: What is it, where do we see it, and why does it work? Today's episode explores some of the nuances of this political approach and how the American shift to Trumpism impacts Canada and other countries. Guest Ibrahim Berrada also shares how misinformation arises, the risks it poses, and the need for people to work together to overcome COVID…

It’s pretty fair to say that the last year has been a tumultuous one. We are still living through the pandemic, and we lived through the endless news cycles and uncertainties of the American election in 2020. Climate change is still threatening, with dramatic weather happening around the globe. But this certainly isn’t the first time that a society…

What does it mean to be human in a post-COVID world? How are we connected to other humans? What is the role of privacy and social justice when responding to a global pandemic? What is our place in the natural world and our connection with non-human animals? What does it mean for us as humans when we see viruses jumping from the animal world to the …

This episode is a little bit different from our usual. Instead of interviewing a researcher, we're talking with one of our graduates. April Pett graduated from our French program in 2007 and has gone on to build up a successful tour company in Paris, France. Her company, April in Paris Tours, offers private walking and chauffeured tours of the city…

Today’s guest is the recipient of this year’s Faculty of Humanities Award for Teaching Excellence. Dr. Elizabeth Vlossak is an Associate Professor with the Department of History where her courses include 20th-century European and World History, Weimar and Nazi Germany, comparative urban history, and women’s and gender history. She has also taught a…

Today's interview is with Troy Ouellette, an Assistant Professor with the Department of Visual Arts, where he specializes in assemblage theory, technology and conceptual art. Our wide-ranging conversation explores the multi-disciplinary nature of assemblage and conceptual art, touching on the environment, politics, trade, gardening, and the Bauhaus…

What is literary journalism and why is it important? How does literary journalism engage with social justice issues? How do we navigate the rise of "fake news" and the decline of local journalism? How does a professor teach immersive journalism during a pandemic lockdown? To answer these questions, our guest this episode is Rob Alexander, an Associ…

What does opera look like today? What stories are being told with opera, and who is telling them? How is opera, and classical music generally, responding to social justice movements like Black Lives Matter? Our first episode of series two features our conversation with Dr. Nina Penner, who is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Music and sp…

Welcome to the second series of Foreword! We’re excited to bring you even more fascinating conversation with researchers from Brock University’s Faculty of Humanities. This past year has definitely been an interesting one. Our world has changed a lot with the COVID pandemic—we’ve been forced to reconsider how we work, how we play, and yes, how we t…

The final episode in our current series features an extended interview with Dr. Leah Knight, Associate Professor with the Department of English Language and Literature. Dr. Knight discusses her early work exploring the connections between books and botany and how her research interests transitioned into examining women’s participation in Early Mode…

Welcome to the first of two special episodes of Foreword that we’re calling Unabridged. In these episodes we’ll be bringing you the full conversation I had with one of our researchers. This episode you’ll hear our full conversation with Dr. Jason Black, Fulbright researcher with the Centre for Canadian Studies, recorded in February 2020. We wanted …

We’re bombarded by images every day, whether we’re on Instagram or Twitter, reading a newspaper or Googling a recipe. Some images, like pictures of kittens, might make us feel happy. Other images, such as pictures of violence or drug use, might evoke feelings of disgust. But can those pictures also help us become more empathetic? Dr. Linda Steer fr…

Like most people, you might be playing a lot of games these days: board games, video games, or games on your phone. But have you thought about how those games communicate meaning? In this episode we speak with Dr. Jason Hawreliak from Brock’s Centre for Digital Humanities, about how games communicate meaning and even propaganda. Listen on to hear m…

How can we get to know people from the past? Primary sources, like government records, letters and diaries, give historians valuable insight into human experiences of the past and making connections with modern crises. Episode four of Foreword features a conversation with Danny Samson, an Associate Professor of History, about his work on Acadian an…

As we live more of our lives online, data privacy issues become more important. Who is collecting our data and what are they doing with it? Aaron Mauro, Assistant Professor with the Centre for Digital Humanities, spoke about identity and surveillance captalism with social media intern Hayley Wilhelm for this bonus mini episode. Links Working from h…

You’ve heard of landscapes and seascapes, but have you ever head of bookscapes? Today’s researcher investigates the history of reading and attempts to unravel the complex relationship between women and written text in Early Modern Britain. Dr. Leah Knight from the Department of English Language and Literature spoke with us about textual culture and…

Before COVID-19 took over our news headlines, Canadians were worried about other issues. There were bushfires in Australia, impeachment in the United States, and royals leaving the United Kingdom. Here in Canada, one of the growing issues making headlines was the spreading demonstrations in support of the Wet’suwet’en protest against Coastal Gaslin…

What image comes to mind when you hear the word Vikings? A violent warrior society, raiding and pillaging? A seafaring people trading and migrating across vast distances of the North Atlantic? Vikings have a hold on the popular imagination, but new directions in Norse studies might just challenge our preconceptions of who and what the Vikings were.…

Welcome to a brand new podcast from the Faculty of Humanities at Brock University! Foreword will introduce you to Humanities researchers at Brock and explore how their work can help us make sense of the rapidly changing world around us. Together, we'll explore the place of Humanities in the modern world. Find our footnotes, links to more informatio…